Channel Usage Policy for Narrowband Frquency Hoppers

Under provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 119(e), Applicant claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/770,727, filed Mar. 12, 2025, U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/839,747, filed Jul. 7, 2025, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The present disclosure relates generally to channel usage policy for narrowband frequency hoppers.

In computer networking, a wireless Access Point (AP) is a networking hardware device that allows a Wi-Fi compatible client device to connect to a wired network and to other client devices. The AP usually connects to a router (directly or indirectly via a wired network such as an intranet and/or the Internet) as a standalone device, but it can also be an integral component of the router itself. Several APs may also work in coordination, either through direct wired or wireless connections, or through a central system, commonly called a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) controller (WLC). An AP is differentiated from a hotspot, which is the physical location where Wi-Fi access to a WLAN is available.

Prior to wireless networks, setting up a computer network in a business, home, or school often required running many cables through walls and ceilings in order to deliver network access to all of the network-enabled devices in the building. With the creation of the wireless AP, network users are able to add devices that access the network with few or no cables. An AP connects to a wired network, then provides radio frequency links for other radio devices to reach that wired network. Most APs support the connection of multiple wireless devices. APs are built to support a standard for sending and receiving data using these radio frequencies.

2 Channel usage policy for narrowband frequency hoppers may be provided. A plurality of channels in a network environment may be determined for Peer to Peer (PP) traffic. A usage mode for each of the plurality of channels may be determined. The usage mode may provide an indication of a class of a medium access type recommended to use each channel of the plurality of channels. The listing of the plurality of channels and usage modes associated with the plurality of channels may be provided to a plurality of client devices of the network environment.

Both the foregoing overview and the following example implementations are examples and explanatory only and should not be considered to restrict the disclosure’s scope, as described and claimed. Furthermore, features and/or variations may be provided in addition to those described. For example, implementations of the disclosure may be directed to various feature combinations and sub-combinations described in the example implementations.

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar elements. While implementations of the disclosure may be described, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For example, substitutions, additions, or modifications may be made to the elements illustrated in the drawings, and the methods described herein may be modified by substituting, reordering, or adding stages to the disclosed methods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limit the disclosure. Instead, the proper scope of the disclosure is defined by the appended claims.

2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Peer-to-Peer (PP) traffic contributes substantially to overall traffic congestion and reduction in Quality-of-Service(QoS)/determinism in a network environment. PP communication is a decentralized network architecture that allows clients or endpoints to interact directly with each other. An example of PP traffic may include a phone streaming audio to a wireless headphone or a wireless headset using Bluetooth. In another example, PP traffic in Ultra High Reliability (UHR) may relate to In-Device Coexistence (IDC) such as a phone unlocking a car using Ultra Wide Band (UWB) signal or streaming audio to a car stereo using Bluetooth. Herein PP traffic may encompass all wireless communications and emissions not related to the traditional Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) use case of communications between an client device and an Access Point (AP) towards providing access to the intranet or the Internet. PP traffic may include cellular traffic over unlicensed spectrum, Bluetooth (BT) traffic, Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) traffic, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) traffic, Zigbee traffic, Matter traffic, etc. The PP traffic might be sent over unlicensed spectrum such as at 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz.

2 The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11bn task group may be interested in improving PP traffic connectivity of a WiFi client with a WiFi AP when the WiFi client is experiencing IDC challenges. A client device (for example, a smartphone, a laptop, etc.) may include multiple radios in a tight volume with no filtering and siloed wireless designs. The client device may be using WiFi with an infrastructure AP but also spraying energy across the band via its BT radio. Embodiments of the disclosure may minimize the interference from the BT radio to the AP and other WiFi APs.

1 FIG. 1 FIG. 100 100 105 110 110 115 120 110 shows an operating environmentfor channel usage policy for narrowband frequency hoppers. As shown in, operating environmentmay include a controllerand a coverage environment. Coverage environmentmay comprise, but is not limited to, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) comprising a plurality of APs that may provide wireless network access (e.g., access to the WLAN for client devices). The plurality of APs may comprise a first APand a second AP. The plurality of APs may provide wireless network access to a plurality of client devices or endpoints as they move within coverage environment.

125 130 135 2 The plurality of client devices may comprise, but are not limited to, a first client device, a second client device, and a third client device. One or more of the endpoints may have multiple radios, and the radios may be virtualized to provide for different kinds of connectivity. For example, the wireless device may include one or more radios or virtualized radios for WiFi Internet /intranet connectivity, one or more radios or virtualized radios for WiFi PP, and other radios for cellular, BT, UWB, Zigbee, Matter, etc.). Ones of the plurality of client devices may comprise, but are not limited to, a smart phone, a Head Mounted Device (HMD), a mouse, a keyboard, a pair of earbuds, a headset, a wireless dock, a personal computer, a tablet device, a mobile device, a telephone, a remote control device, a set-top box, a digital video recorder, an Internet-of-Things (IoT) device, a network computer, a router, an Augmented Reality (AR)/ Virtual Reality (VR)/ Extended Reality (XR)/ Mixed Reality (MR) device, or other similar microcomputer-based device. Each of the plurality of APs may be compatible with specification standards such as, but not limited to, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification standard for example.

The plurality of APs and the plurality of client devices may use Multi-Link Operation (MLO) where they are able to transmit and receive across different bands and channels by establishing two or more links to two or more AP radios. These bands may comprise, but are not limited the 2.4 GHz band, the 5 GHz band, the 6 GHz band, and the 60 GHz band.

105 110 105 105 125 130 135 110 105 110 105 Controllermay comprise a Wireless Local Area Network (LAN) Controller (WLC) and may provision and control coverage environment(e.g., a Wireless LAN (WLAN)). In some examples, controllermay include a Radio Resource Manager (RRM). Controllermay allow first client device, second client device, and third client deviceto join coverage environment. In some implementations of the disclosure, controllermay be implemented by a Digital Network Architecture Center (DNAC) controller (i.e., a Software-Defined Network (SDN) controller) that may configure information for coverage environmentin order to provide channel usage for narrowband frequency hoppers. In other instances, controller’sfunction may be implemented entirely in software and reside in the cloud, on premises, co-located with an AP, or be distributed across APs or other network elements.

100 105 115 120 125 130 135 100 100 100 400 4 FIG. The elements described above of operating environment(e.g., controller, first AP, second AP, first client device, second client device, and third client device) may be practiced in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or in any other circuits or systems. The elements of operating environmentmay be practiced in electrical circuits comprising discrete electronic elements, packaged or integrated electronic chips containing logic gates, a circuit utilizing a microprocessor, or on a single chip containing electronic elements or microprocessors. Furthermore, the elements of operating environmentmay also be practiced using other technologies capable of performing logical operations such as, for example, AND, OR, and NOT, including but not limited to, mechanical, optical, fluidic, and quantum technologies. As described in greater detail below with respect to, the elements of operating environmentmay be practiced in a computing device.

2 FIG. 1 FIG. 1 FIG. 200 200 105 200 200 is a flow chart setting forth the general stages involved in a methodconsistent with implementations of the disclosure channel usage policy for wireless devices including narrowband frequency hoppers. Methodmay be implemented using controlleras described in more detail above with respect to. In some examples, methodmay be implemented using the plurality of APs as described in more detail above with respect to. Ways to implement the stages of methodwill be described in greater detail below.

200 205 210 105 110 2 2 125 130 105 2 110 2 2 110 105 105 2 Methodmay begin at starting blockand proceed to stagewhere controllermay determine a plurality of channels in a network environment (for example, coverage environment) for PP traffic. The PP traffic may be between first client device(for example, a cellular phone) and second client device(for example, wireless headphones, wireless earphones, car stereo, etc.). Controllermay determine that there may be more than a predetermined amount of PP traffic in coverage environment(currently and/or historically and/or predicted) and may determine to steer the PP traffic to the plurality of channels so that less PP traffic is interfering with infrastructure or other traffic in operating environment. In some examples, controllermay identify the plurality of channels to steer the PbP traffic to and clear the identified plurality of channels of other traffic such as infrastructure traffic between infrastructure APs and client devices. Controllermay coordinate with the plurality of APs of coverage environment to clear the plurality of channels identified for the PP traffic.

2 210 200 220 105 Once having determined the plurality of channels in the network environment to steer PP traffic at stage, methodmay proceed to stagewhere controllermay determine a usage mode for each of the plurality of channels. The usage mode may provide an indication of a class of a medium access type recommended to use each channel of the plurality of channels. In one example, the usage mode may be indicated by assigning one or more values to other wireless systems for different classes of medium access technology and related parameters. Classes may be constructed from a tuple of one or more of the following: Bandwidth (BW), hopping characteristics, Listens before Talking (LbT) characteristics of the corresponding wireless technologies, and a duty cycle. The BW may be one of the following or similar: narrowband, wideband, and UWB. The hopping characteristics may include one of the following or similar: non-hopping, could be hopping (and capable of adaptive frequency hopping to an assigned frequency), is hopping (and capable of adaptive frequency hopping to an assigned frequency). The LbT characteristics may include one of the following or similar: talks (that is, transmits) without first sensing the medium; listens before talking (that is, transmitting); and Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA). Other variants may be included too. The duty cycle may include one of the following or similar: low, medium, and high. Additional characteristics may be used to create the tuple for the classes. In some implementations, adjacent channels may be allocated to the same class of medium access type. This may not preclude that, as well, sets of (non-contiguous) channels already defined for advertising by wireless technologies might be allocated to the same class of medium access type too.

2 2 In one example, a value of 6 for the usage mode (that is, usage mode 6) may be defined to indicate a channel recommended for a medium access technology that uses narrowband channels (that is, BW=narrowband) and channel hops (that is, hopping = 1). The class tuple for the usage mode 6 may be defined as (narrowband, isHopping = 1). The usage mode 6 and an associated channel therefore may be recommended for the BT radio or for the PP traffic over BT radio. In another example, a value of 7 for the usage mode (that is, usage mode 7) may be defined to indicate a channel recommended for a medium access technology that uses narrowband channels (that is, BW=narrowband) and channel does not hop (that is, hopping = 0). The class tuple for the usage mode 7 may be defined as (narrowband, isHopping = 0). The usage mode 7 and an associated channel may be recommended for the PP traffic comprising BLE advertising traffic. Alternatively, this may be lumped with usage mode 6, with i.e., hopping = could-be-hopping. In yet another example, a value of 8 for the usage mode (that is, usage mode 8) may be defined to indicate a channel recommended for a medium access technology that uses wideband BW channels (that is, BW=wideband) and a high duty cycle (that is, dutyCycle = high). The class tuple for the usage mode 8 may be defined as (narrowband, dutyCycle = 1). This value and associated channel may be recommended for New Radio-Unlicensed (NRU) traffic.

220 200 230 105 105 After determining the usage mode for each of the plurality of channels at stage, methodmay proceed to stagewhere controllermay provide the listing of the plurality of channels and usage mode associated with the plurality of channels to a plurality of client devices of the network environment. In some examples, the usage modes may be provided in a channel usage element of the plurality of channels. The channel usage element may be sent by the plurality of APs in beacons, probe responses, association frames, reassociation frames, BSS Transition Management (BTM) query, BTM request, Neighbor Report (NR) response frame, channel usage response frame, other management frame, etc. In some instances, an AP may only send the channel usage signal in response to an explicit request by the client device, such as when the client device sends a channel usage request frame. The channel usage request frame may include a channel usage element containing a usage mode field signifying narrow band frequency hopping. In the response, there may be one channel usage element for each distinct determined usage mode and subset of channels; and the set of channel usage elements may span a plurality of channels. In another implementation, the set of usage modes may be determined first, and then suitable channels may be identified for each usage mode; then once again one channel usage element may be transmitted for each usage mode. In yet another implementation, a non-WiFi radio (perhaps collocated with an AP) in communication with controllermay use non-WiFi wireless technologies (such as BT, BLE, UWB, NRU) to advertise or otherwise report the semantics expressed by the channel usage elements.

3 FIG.A 3 FIG.A 300 300 300 305 310 315 320 300 300 320 is a diagram of an example channel usage element. channel usage elementmay be transmitted by an IEEE 802.11 AP. If an AP device includes not only IEEE 802.11 radios but also other radio technologies (for example, such as BT, BLE, UWB, etc.), then other signaling formats more suited to those other radio technologies may be used. As shown in, channel usage elementmay include a plurality of fields, for example, an element Identifier (ID) field, a length field, a usage mode field, and a channel entry field. A length of each of the plurality of fields of channel usage elementmay be predetermined, for example, 1 octet. A single channel usage elementmay be included for each recommended channel or for more than one recommended channel. A set of (smaller, contiguous) channels may be indirectly recommended by listing a single (wider) channel that is the union of the smaller channels. An identifier or identity of each of the recommended channels may be provided in channel entry field.

315 315 300 315 256 6-254 325 2 105 230 200 240 3 FIG.B 3 FIG.A 3 FIG.B Usage mode fieldmay be used to provide the usage mode for one or more channels.is a diagram of usage mode fieldof channel usage elementof. As shown in, usage mode fieldmay includeusage mode values each of which may be used to define a unique usage mode. Usage mode valuesmay be presently-reserved (indicated as) and may be unreserved and assigned for new purposes such as indicating usage modes for each of the plurality of channels recommended for the PP traffic associated with different medium access technology. Once controllerprovides the listing of the plurality of channels and the usage modes to the plurality of client devices at stage, methodmay then terminate at END stage.

110 125 125 125 125 2 2 125 300 115 125 130 125 A client device of coverage environment, for example, first client devicemay receive the listing of the plurality of channels and the usage modes associated with the plurality of channels and may determine that a usage mode is applicable to a radio of first client device. First client device, in response to determining that the usage mode is applicable to the radio of first client device, may: a) start any new PP activity to a recommended channel in the usage mode, b) switch the radio of ongoing PP activity to a recommended channel in the usage mode and/or signal to a peer device the client device’s interest/recommendation to switch their communications to a recommended channel in the usage mode. For example, first client devicemay receive the usage mode 6 (which may be applicable to a BT radio) in channel usage elementfrom first AP. First client devicemay be already using or is about to use its BT radio to communicate with second AP(that is, a wireless headphone). First client devicemay use the recommended channel in the usage mode 6 and start and thereafter operate/switch/request a switch of the BT radio to the recommended channel.

125 125 2 125 2 In some implementations, first client devicemay determine, in response to determining that the usage mode is application to the radio of first client device, that a recommended channel in the usage mode is not more congested than other channels available for the PP traffic. First client devicethen may start, switch, or request a switch, in response to determining that the recommended channel in the usage mode is not more congested than the other channels available for the PP traffic, the radio to a channel recommended in the usage mode

125 For instance, first client devicemay be recommended to use some, many, or all channels in Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (UNII) 3 and UNII 1 since they may commonly be using these already. Narrowband frequency hoppers, on the other hand, may be recommended to use band-edge spectrum and/or some, many, or all channels in UNII 4 as UNII 4 spectrum is harder to use by WiFi7+ devices due to filters for MLO at 5 GHz and 6 GHz.

125 125 125 125 125 A client device, for example, first client devicewith multiple radios, upon receipt of the channel usage information, may, for each radio for whom there is an applicable channel usage element, optionally check that the channel recommendation is consistent across neighboring APs. In addition, first client devicemay optionally check that the recommended channel is not more congested than other channels. First client devicethen may be biased to start using or request to switch their channels to use to within the recommended channel list. If first client deviceforms a new connection, then first client devicemay be biased to start the new connection on one or more channels within the recommended channel list. In some examples, where the bias may be governed by external factors (for example, Mobile Device Management (MDM) or a group policy) may cause that recommendations by certain Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) may have a higher weight. For example, a recommendation from an AP from the user’s employer may have higher weight. Also, a recommendation from an AP to which the client device is attached to may have a higher weight than that from other APs.

105 2 As discussed above, to help steer narrowband frequency hoppers away from channels used by infrastructure or enterprise APs for critical traffic, controllermay vacate some channels from use by, for example, from non-PP traffic, or by the infrastructure or enterprise APs and recommend vacated channels for narrowband frequency hoppers. Multi-radio devices like smartphones and laptops may hear the policy and may react to it or consider it especially while being connected to the AP advertising the policy. Also, this same technique may be used for other kinds of wireless systems with characteristics that make them unfriendly sharers with the IEEE 802.11 (including both infrastructure 802.11 and P2P 802.11).

110 115 115 105 125 115 115 105 In some examples, APs of coverage environment(for example, first AP) may also include extra radios, such as, for BT, UWB, Zigbee, Matter, or NRU. Each of these radios may support an advertisement mechanism and/or vendor specific signaling. First APmay have a channel usage policy (determined by itself or controller) and may transmit the channel usage policy over the BT, UWB, Zigbee, Matter, NRU, etc. as well as, or instead of, over the IEEE 802.11. The message may be trusted at recipients (for example, first client device) in the same way as other messages from first AP’snon-WiFi radios may be trusted. In one embodiment, a security mechanism may be included so that the authenticity of the message may be verified by the receiver. The security mechanism may include, in one example, a certificate chain, where a trusted certificate authority may provide some assurance that the transmitter of the signal is a known entity such as the venue owner or tenant of the facility in which first APmay be installed. The entity operating the RRM function, such as controller, may remain a natural source of the channel usage policy, and the RRM may extend itself to reduce congestion and collisions to multiple unlicensed wireless technologies (such has all technologies on which advertisements are being sent).

2 A recipient client device may treat the information carried by the BT, UWB, Zigbee, or Matter in a similar way as the signal transmitted by an IEEE 802.11 AP. That is, after discarding signal from any nearby transmitting devices that fail a security check, the receiving client device may assign a greater weight on a transmitting device that may support and pass security, a greater weight on a transmitting device that the recipient client device is connected to (and has a constructive experience with), a greater weight on a transmitting device that is heard more loudly, and/or a greater weight on multiple devices reporting the same channel usage policy (via the same or different wireless technologies). Once the signaled policy is determined, the receiving client device may use the recommendation as some kind of bias or determinant of its behavior, such as on what channel they operate their PP communications.

4 FIG. 4 FIG. 2 FIG. 400 300 410 415 415 420 425 410 420 400 105 115 120 125 130 135 105 115 120 125 130 135 400 shows computing device. As shown in, computing devicemay include a processing unitand a memory unit. Memory unitmay include a software moduleand a database. While executing on processing unit, software modulemay perform, for example, processes for channel usage policy for narrowband frequency hoppers as described above with respect to. Computing device, for example, may provide an operating environment for controller, first AP, second AP, first client device, second client device, or third client device. Controller, first AP, second AP, first client device, second client device, or third client devicemay operate in other environments and are not limited to computing device.

400 400 400 300 Computing devicemay be implemented using a Wi-Fi access point, a tablet device, a mobile device, a smart phone, a telephone, a remote control device, a set-top box, a digital video recorder, a cable modem, a personal computer, a network computer, a mainframe, a router, a switch, a server cluster, a smart TV-like device, a network storage device, a network relay device, or other similar microcomputer-based device. Computing devicemay comprise any computer operating environment, such as hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable sender electronic devices, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Computing devicemay also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices. The aforementioned systems and devices are examples, and computing devicemay comprise other systems or devices.

Implementations of the disclosure, for example, may be implemented as a computer process (method), a computing system, or as an article of manufacture, such as a computer program product or computer readable media. The computer program product may be a computer storage media readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process. The computer program product may also be a propagated signal on a carrier readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process. Accordingly, the present disclosure may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.). In other words, implementations of the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. A computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific computer-readable medium examples (a non-exhaustive list), the computer-readable medium may include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a Read-only Memory (ROM), an Erasable Programmable Read-only Memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, and a portable Compact Disc Read-only Memory (CD-ROM). Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.

While certain implementations of the disclosure have been described, other implementations may exist. Furthermore, although implementations of the present disclosure have been described as being associated with data stored in memory and other storage mediums, data can also be stored on or read from other types of computer-readable media, such as secondary storage devices, like hard disks, floppy disks, or a CD-ROM, a carrier wave from the Internet, or other forms of RAM or ROM. Further, the disclosed methods’ stages may be modified in any manner, including by reordering stages and/or inserting or deleting stages, without departing from the disclosure.

Furthermore, implementations of the disclosure may be practiced in an electrical circuit comprising discrete electronic elements, packaged or integrated electronic chips containing logic gates, a circuit utilizing a microprocessor, or on a single chip containing electronic elements or microprocessors. Implementations of the disclosure may also be practiced using other technologies capable of performing logical operations such as, for example, AND, OR, and NOT, including but not limited to, mechanical, optical, fluidic, and quantum technologies. In addition, implementations of the disclosure may be practiced within a general purpose computer or in any other circuits or systems.

1 FIG. 300 Implementations of the disclosure may be practiced via a system-on-a-chip (SOC) where each or many of the element illustrated inmay be integrated onto a single integrated circuit. Such an SOC device may include one or more processing units, graphics units, communications units, system virtualization units and various application functionality all of which may be integrated (or “burned”) onto the chip substrate as a single integrated circuit. When operating via an SOC, the functionality described herein with respect to implementations of the disclosure, may be performed via application-specific logic integrated with other components of computing deviceon the single integrated circuit (chip).

Implementations of the present disclosure, for example, are described above with reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations of methods, systems, and computer program products according to implementations of the disclosure. The functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order as shown in any flowchart. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.

While the specification includes examples, the disclosure’s scope is indicated by the following claims. Furthermore, while the specification has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, the claims are not limited to the features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example for implementations of the disclosure.